Where did my clean go?

I was raised to have a clean home. Growing up, I had to make my bed, wash the dishes, and help clean the house. That was part of life.

I have always loved a clean house. In my adult life, it has been a symbol of a job well done. That feeling when you crash onto the sofa after cleaning the house and you can smell the clean. I love it. It really is one of my favorite things in the world.

In college, I had clean roommates and not so clean roommates. When I lived alone, my apartments were almost sterile because they were so clean. And, there was no mess. When I lived alone, there were no clothes on the floor and things were neat and orderly.

Altman wasn't taught the same clean that I was taught. Through the years, I have adjusted my expectations. For instance, a few years ago, he caught me rearranging the items in the dishwasher before we washed them. He was putting things in but I thought they could go in differently. I didn't think he'd notice that I was reloading everything - he did. Now, I leave the dishwasher to him. He loads it and unloads it and we are all happy.

We have a child. We also have three dogs and a cat. Clean doesn't live here right now. We got the puppy because the old dog has to go out so many times a day that we thought this would be a great opportunity to house train the new dog. That has worked well. Unfortunately, the old dog has no idea where he is and does his business all over the house.

Luckily, the toddler is daytime potty trained so at least I am not cleaning up kid pee off the floor anymore. That sure was fun for awhile.

We are trying to teach Little Altman to do his chores. He has to make his bed, take care of the dogs, eat vegetables, etc every day. His idea of making the bed and mine are significantly different but the effort is there. Yesterday, it took over an hour to clean up trains so that we could go to a birthday party. I understand that we have to teach him. If I die trying, he will be raised knowing how to clean up after himself, how to do laundry, and how to scrub a toilet. The good news is that this afternoon, he called me into the bathroom and showed me how he was cleaning the potty. It was a nice start (and yes, he was being supervised by his father).

Through the last few years, we've alternated between having someone clean the house and doing it ourselves. Admittedly, it is really hard to have a clean house when you live in roughly 1700 sq. ft. with all these beings under one roof. It is hard to justify the money when the place looks like a hurricane hit it within 5 minutes of being cleaned. But, it is hard to justify our own time when it looks like a hurricane hit it within 5 minutes of being cleaned.

Right now, we are attempting to make it a family affair. Everyone has their duties and they are split up throughout the week. We'll see how this goes.

I like clean. We aren't nasty but we aren't eat off the floor clean. Those days may be gone permanently. I sure hope not..............